THE CENTURY OF LIFE
THE HIGH AND DIFFICULT ROAD
To give in secret as beneath a shroud; To honour all who to thy threshold come;’ Do good by stealth and of thy deeds be dumb, But of another’s noble acts be proud And vaunt them in the senate and the crowd; To keep low minds in fortune’s arrogant day; To speak of foemen without scorn or rage; What finger appointed first this roughest way Of virtue narrower than the falchion’s edge?
ADORNMENT
The hand needs not a bracelet for its pride, High liberality its greatness is; The head no crown wants to show deified; Fallen at the Master's feet it best doth please. Truth-speaking makes the face more bright to shine, Deep study girds the brow with diamond rays; Strength and not gold in conquering arms divine Triumphs; calm purity the heart arrays. Nature’s great men have these for wealth and gem; Riches they need not, nor a diadem.
THE SOFTNESS AND HARDNESS OF THE NOBLE
Being fortunate, how the noble heart grows soft As lilies! but in calamity’s rude shocks Rugged and high like a wild mountain’s rocks
It fronts the thunders, granite piled aloft.
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